In Sight
by Go-Maths
Summary: Once they exchanged a smile. They don't really remember who first smiled or whose smile was wider. But they did remember feeling good. Dhr One Shot


**A/N -**

**Beta-ed by Aishani Singh! :)  
>Also, nothing belongs to me. All to J.K. Rowling.<br>If it belonged to me, Draco would have married Hermione and had little blonde curly haired kids. **

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><p>He looked.<br>That was the most he could do, anyway.  
>So he looked. Well, maybe not looked. He stared.<br>Sometimes his eyes would go dry, because he had not blinked for so long.  
>Sometimes he lost track of everything around him.<br>Not many people noticed though and even if they did, they did not communicate their thoughts.  
>He was discreet. However discreet his hormones let him be, that is. He only looked when no one else did.<p>

Small glances when she happened to be in the same hall.  
>He would pretend to drop things, so he had a few extra moments to look while retrieving them.<br>Sideway looks when in the same class. Under the disguise of those bored looks, which most of his classmates usually passed.  
>Those I-am-bored looks in the hall. So that he could stare across the hall, right in front of him, where she sat.<br>Those nonchalant expressions he wore on his face so he could stare unashamedly across the hall, right past her friends, where she sat.

That was enough. Was it not?

Then one day, she looked too. Maybe she had felt the weight of his gaze over time, or maybe she just need a new location to look at.  
>Whatever it was, at that moment, right across the lunch tables, she saw him.<br>Saw him looking right back at her.

Slowly, she began to catch the glances.  
>In the hall.<br>Passages.  
>Classrooms.<p>

Sure, this felt weird but somehow, she did not mind.

Once they exchanged a smile. They don't really remember who first smiled or whose smile was wider. But they did remember feeling good.

Once, while in the library, she thought. Why was she not repulsed? Why was she not running off to her best friends, Ron and Harry, and telling them about Malfoy's new creepy tactics? Why was she so...mesmerized?

She never really hated that guy. She did dislike him. But hate? Not really.  
>She was just..disappointed in him.<br>Whenever he said something, did something in the past to infuriate her, she did get angry. And every other time, a little more disappointed in him.

Later, during the times of war, she also got to know why he said what he said and did what he did. His head had been cramped with beliefs like such, from the time he grew up and could comprehend the little things about life, he could not really oppose. He would be as good as dead. After the war, when they came back again to Hogwarts for their 7th (considered their 8th) year, she noticed that he did not really taunt the Muggleborns anymore. Sure, he still had his pride, but never really insulted anyone anymore.

Come to think of it, once when they had been partnered in class, he apologized. For everything. He did not fall to her feet and wept for her forgiveness, but he did something, which for him, would be the equivalent of it.

"Uh..Granger?"  
>"Yes?"<br>"Look..I," he looked away from her eyes now, "I am sorry."  
>"For what, Malfoy?" She remembered being stunned. She looked at Malfoy. Draco Malfoy did not wear his usual smirk, nor was there any malice in his voice. It sounded like he had really meant it.<br>"Everything." And he did.

Their first little smile exchange had happened the next day, in fact.  
>And many more happened in the days to come.<p>

Voldemort's demise had given everyone a new kind of freedom, it seemed.

Although the memories he had created could not be removed neither forgotten, people could store them away.

While Bellatrix had pointed her wand at Hermione for the first time at the Manor, Hermione had looked at Draco. And Draco had looked right back. Draco had tried pulling his Aunt back.  
>"Move over, you silly boy! Petrificus Totalus!"<br>Draco was shoved to a corner.  
>And Draco could do no more. But he kept looking at Hermione. That he did.<p>

Hermione thought that there was no valid reason not to befriend with Draco Malfoy, was there? So why shouldn't she?  
>Yes, he was an enemy. Was.<p>

The war was over now. So should be all the hatred.

While one could not feel any kind of warm feelings for Death Eaters who had done everything intentionally, Draco Malfoy was a different story. He was forced. He never really had a choice. Family meant a lot to him. More than family, his mother meant a lot to him. Whatever he had done, on the name of being a Death Eater, none of it was because he wanted. It was because he had to.  
>He was just a boy.<p>

So, it was decided. Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were going to be friends, may whatever happen, happen.

Draco was coming back from the library. Contradicting to the usual beliefs he liked the library. Loved it even. Peace, quiet and books. There was not a lot more he wanted in life then.

While walking towards the Slytherin dungeons, he saw Hermione Granger. Only her, alone in the dark. The lights were dimmed now and most of the students were already in their chambers as it was just minutes before their bed-time. But Hermione Granger walking towards the library even during the last minutes? Sort of expected.

Only this time, she stopped when she saw him. And smiled. And waved.

He looked behind him, but found nothing but the obvious emptiness. Surely, she would not be waving to him now, would she? But from the looks of it, she smiled back, still sort of hesitant. She walked up to him.

"To the library?" Even though both of them knew that Draco was on his way back.  
>"Sure," he grinned.<p>

And they talked.  
>About the most random of things, the most random of people.<p>

Maybe, if this is how things went Draco Malfoy would get everything he wanted in life.

Maybe, so would Hermione Granger.


End file.
